Good, Bad, and Ugly: A Close Look at Mariners 5-1 Win Over White Sox on Monday
Ever since the Seattle Mariners were swept by San Francisco Giants in April, things have gone very well for Dan Wilson’s team on the road, and that trend continued Monday night with a 5-1 win over the Chicago White Sox to pick up their fourth consecutive victory and move their road record to 14-5, the best in all of the majors.
Let’s look at the good, bad and ugly from the win on the South Side on Monday:
Good: Luis Castillo
Good seems like an understatement. Castillo threw seven scoreless innings, and he was able to strike out five while allowing three hits. It’s worth noting that the White Sox appeared to see the ball well against the right-hander to begin the game with five balls hit at over 100 mph over the first three frames, but Castillo was able to make key pitches whenever there was trouble.
And luckily, there wasn’t much trouble over the last four frames. Castillo retired the last 14 batters he faced, and while there were some balls hit to the warning track, for the most part it was an extremely effective outing from the 32-year old. He’s now allowed just one run over his last 13 innings, lowering his ERA to a very respectable 3.20 on the campaign. Sure, it came against an awful baseball team - more on that later - but it doesn’t make it less impressive.
Bad: The offense for seven innings
Give some credit to Davis Martin for sure, but this was a very poor offensive effort by the Mariners for the first seven innings. They picked up just three hits, and outside of an RBI single in the third inning from Jorge Polanco, they didn’t threaten Martin at all. It was a 1-0 game heading into the eighth inning, and again, with all due respect to the right-hander, this is not a pitcher Seattle should be scoring a single run against in 2025.
Good: Julio Rodriguez
Ah, but the eighth inning happened. And oh, did it happen.
JULIO RODRIGUEZ GRAND SLAM 😱
(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/Znn3vtVi9o— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 20, 2025
That’s the eighth homer of the season for J-Rod, and that salami turned a 1-0 lead into a 5-0 deficit. It’s been an outstanding May for the 24-year old that has seen him slash .290/.323/.452, and the only complaint has really been that you’d like to see Rodriguez drive the baseball on a more consistent basis.
Can’t complain about that tonight, however.
Bad: Weather
There’s a pretty good chance Tuesday’s game is going to be rained out. And that’s bad because we like to watch baseball games, and also because…
Ugly : The White Sox
My gosh. The fact that this Chicago team isn’t the worst in baseball is an absolute embarrassment for Rob Manfred and everyone who has enabled baseball teams like this. They have a good farm system and there are some intriguing pitchers on this team for the long-term, but right now? Right now, this team is a joke, and as much as we love to see the Mariners win games, it’d be more fun to watch them win games against competent baseball teams. The White Sox are not a competent baseball team; no matter what happens over the next two games of this series.
